Kaduna state government has concluded arrangements to partner with two Nongovernmental Organisations to launch the 2nd phase of Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprise, (ENGINE II) programme.
The NGOs are Mercy Corps and Kindling Hope across Nations, (KHAN), which is to empower 4,750 marginalised in school and out-of-school girls in the state.
The aim of the initiative is to improve the lives of less privileged girl-child through the ENGINE II programme funded by the UK Department for International Development Fund (DFID).
Executive Director of KHAN, Mr. Kizito Andah, said the programme would enable all girls whose schooling had been interrupted, to have the opportunity to build their functional literacy and numeracy skills again.
He explained that the platform would also provide the “in-school-girls an opportunity to transit to the next phase of education, or complete their current education cycle, while the out-of -school-girls will have the opportunity to access second chance education, in which they return to formal schools to complete their studies”.
Andah, who spoke shortly after the programme was launched in Kaduna said in its first phase, that is ENGINE I, over 24,000 marginalised girls between the ages of 16 and 19 were supported to improve their learning outcomes and economic status.
In her opening remarks, National Programme Manager of ENGINE II, Shweta Shah, said the second project is intended to improve social, literary, and entrepreneurial skills of the girl-child, adding that “the girls were selected on the basis of marginalization criteria.
“Some of them are extremely poor and can’t afford to go to school, some due to poverty pulled out of school and are sent to hawk on the street.
We are working with government on policies implementation to remove the barriers which girls are facing in school and out of school, to address issues like poverty, access to quality education and facilities in school.
” While speaking, the state’s Commissioner for Education, Jaafaru Sani, said the ENGINE II programme would enable remarkable improvement in the number of girl- child enrolment in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.
